.
lovers night is the first film by Nicholas Ray. Before, your only experience were his three months as assistant to Elia Kazan. However, he had enough freedom to be able to take almost all decisions. And it had the full support of the producer John Houseman, a former sidekick plays in the 30's, who interceded with the head of the studio to direct the film and also allowed some outbursts in the tight budget, as a week of rehearsals with the actors and renting a helicopter for a day to roll the air planes.
.
lovers night is an example of the new winds that Dore Schary RKO introduced in the brief span of just over a year when he led the study, before being replaced by Howard Hughes. At that time, launched a new production policy which argued for young beginners. And Ray was in the right place at the right time.
.
The film is an example of the best virtues of the series B: creativity in finding the best solutions and narrative economy, by necessity, under addition the imaginative way to circumvent censorship on issues of violence and sex. lovers night, even following the coordinates of film noir, is first and foremost a love story from the beginning marked by a bitter and fatalistic. A Ray is more interested in the relationship between the two lovers to share. The theft is solved quickly, without fanfare, with some great shots filmed from the rear of the car. The violence only appears, as suggested in the dialogues, and the final confrontation with the police, Ray uses the time necessary to display it.
.
The film begins in an unusual. It is a prologue, and an epilogue, not a flashback. They are romantic images that hold the two protagonists in the foreground, with no narrative function. After a few seconds, Bowie (Farley Granger) and Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell) turn their faces toward the camera caught. We continue to air planes, taken from the helicopter, a car speeding across dusty roads. Soon we will know that 3 men who have just leak in prison and end up finding shelter in the garage of the brother of one of them. There Keechie Bowie and known, and from the first moment, their eyes betray a mutual attraction (there is a wonderful scene in which Keechie in front of a mirror, release his mane to the collection and then always available to care for Bowie who has been injured by a policeman. Words are not needed!). Both were abandoned by their mothers and have a dark future ahead. Bowie is a naive idealist. He tells her to meet some who can not deal with women, is 23 and the last 7 has spent in prison. From here, the flight to nowhere, with Mexico as unattainable dream paradise. Bowie and Keechie want to be a partner as the other, feel entitled to be happy but the fate he has prepared another way. One night the car crossed the Mississippi and he tells her, Someday I'd like to see this country. Keechie answers the "day? Bowie and replies, Yes, that would be fine. On this flight there are several moments in which the fugitives manage to lead a "normal life" but is merely an imitation of life.
From the above it follows that They Lives by Night (original title) is a very unusual film noir. The action is conspicuous by its absence and exacerbated lyricism makes can not speak of it as a canonical example of black cinema, nor was the genius western Johnny Guitar. That may explain the failure of the film at the time.
.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment